The present invention relates generally to information handling systems, and more specifically to information handling systems having one or more interconnected peripheral devices.
Present consumer electronics based device control systems permit a user to specify macros which operate across multiple devices to allow the system to provide a specific control function. For example, a macro may be defined that turns on a television, selects a specific input (e.g., the AV-1 input) of the television, and selects the xe2x80x9cPLAYxe2x80x9d command for a video cassette recorder (VCR). Such macros, however, do not include information describing how the devices controlled by the control system are interconnected. Thus, the control system does not xe2x80x9cknowxe2x80x9d that the VCR is attached to the AV-1 input and would not be able to dynamically record to the VCR without the user either predefining an appropriate macro to accomplish this function or manually selecting the AV-1 output on the television and xe2x80x9cRECORDxe2x80x9d command on the VCR.
Known to the art are computer-based information handling systems such as convergent personal computer/television systems or the like which permit a user to specify devices which are connected to each input of the system. However, such systems do not currently permit the user to specify how the external devices are interconnected with each other.
Consequently, it would be advantageous to provide a system capable of interacting with a user to identify how peripheral devices are interconnected with each other and to generate a model representing the interconnection of the devices. This model could then be used by the information handling system to provide control functions for the peripheral devices.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a novel system for identifying the interconnection of peripheral devices in an information handling system and generating a model of the interconnection of the devices. The model may then be used to control operation of the interconnected peripheral devices. The system identifies peripheral devices interconnected with the information handling system via a query based user interface and builds objects in the model representing the identified devices. The system also identifies interconnections between each identified peripheral device and the information handling system, and builds objects within the model representing these interconnections.
The present invention is also directed to a novel method for identifying the interconnection of peripheral devices in an information handling system. The method includes the steps of identifying devices interconnected with the information handling system and generating a model representing the identified peripheral devices and the interconnections of the devices with other devices in the system. The model is generated by building a device object representing each identified device. Each device object may include one or more input objects representing inputs of the identified device and/or one or more output objects representing outputs of the identified device. An interconnect object may then be built representing the interconnection of the device with another device via each input or output. The method may be tangibly embodied on a medium readable by the information handling system capable of causing the information handling system to execute the method.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.